A very good morning again and welcome to our IPDM-PAM “Interior Design Exhibition (id-x) 2010.

First of all, We would like to express our sincere thanks to our Guest of Honour Yang Berhormat Datuk Edward Yong, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, who has graciously accepted our invitation to this id-x exhibition today. We are indeed honored to have your presence here today Datuk.

And also thank you to Yang Berusaha En. Mohd. Suhaimi, President of IPDM for coming all the way from Kuala Lumpur to support our local IPDM-PAM (id-x) exhibition today.

Thank you to all our supporters and exhibitors of IPDM and PAM Sabah and not forgetting our kind sponsors and the media too.

Distinguished guests, Datuk-Datuk, Datin-Datin, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Gone are the days when house buyers, corporate offices and retail shops owners are happy with just four walls and a roof over their head. As Malaysia had progressed over the years, its Citizen are now more educated and well informed on what is available to them in the context of comfort in their built environment.

Today, the younger generations are more demanding for better quality design than their parents or Grandparents and it is timely for us Architects and Interior Designers as well as the specialist contractors to provide our enhanced services to meet this demands.

On another note:-

Everyone today is talking about climate change and going Green. Yes, we all have a role to play in our daily lives to help reduce wastage of energy. Interior Design is all about visual and physical comfort, especially inside our built environment eg. A home or office.

We all forgot and we took “Thermal” comfort for granted, we look a visual and physical comfort as a priority as Thermal comfort can be easily provided for by air-conditioning eg. Providing cold air in our hot environment and heating in other cold countries.

Going Green vide Interior Design can easily be achieved without much additional cost when both Architects and Interior Designer starts on a correct footing.

Correct orientation of windows and walls, with proper shading and ventilations can greatly reduce heat gain vide solar radiations in our hot humid environment. A typical roof system of a Malaysian Terrace House receives most of its solar heat gain from its roof. This typical roof gain about 50% to 85% of the total solar radiation heat into this house.

Reducing solar heat gain through the roof with proper insulations should therefore be the main priority for keeping a house cooler for ‘Thermal Comfort’. Temperature difference of up to 4 degree Celsius had been achieved between roofs with insulations to those without insulation (Rockwool insulation).

From this, one can see, a roof with proper ventilation and insulation will consume not only lesser electricity but will also be naturally cooler (up to 4 degree Celsius).

However, I would like to bring to the kind attention of our Honorable Asst. Minister Datuk Edward Yong and his Ministry, that unfortunately, insulations is a hidden item inside roof space and not all developers are prepare to provide for this due to additional cost of insulation when it cannot be seen by potential house purchasers.

So, on behalf of all future house buyers in Sabah, I would like to appeal to the Honorable Minister to kindly study and consider on how to make it a requirement for all future housing development, to be provided with a minimal 50mm thick insulation wool with double sided aluminum sisalation sheet to its roof space.

Knowing our Honorable Datuk and his Ministry, who has a long impeccable history of service to the building industries, who I am sure genuinely feels for the common man in the streets, would consider this reasonable appeal for the common good of everyone in Sabah. You will forever be remembered, for being brave enough to consider for the benefit of the future generation.

For that, I thank you once again Datuk for taking time off from your busy schedules to be with us today for our id-x 2010 exhibition.

Thank you.

Ar. Ho Jia Lit
Sabah Chapter Chairman 2009/10

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Further to an invitation by Jabatan Bomba to PAM Chapter Committee for a dialogue with them on 2nd Feb 2010, the Chairman Ar. Ho J L led a team of PAM CC members consisting of Ar. Lo Su Yin, Ar. Arnold Kwan, Ar. Aaaron Fong, Ar. Belinda Chia, and [ past Chairman Ar. Lee Hon Liong] attended this dialogue along with members of IEM and ACEM at BOMBA HQ , Jalan Lintas Inanam at 10 am.

All were warmly welcomed by the BOMBA Director Tuan PPJB Khirudin B. Drahman and his Officers at their main conference room and a power point presentation were given by the Director En Khirudin with regards to the administration of their BOMBA Department. Various statistics with regards to numbers of Deaths, Injuries and Damages to properties in terms of Cost and [ total value of properties saved ], resulting from past years Fire’s were given.

It is interesting to note that during this briefing, BOMBA had pick out Komplex Karamunsing as one of the building of concern with a ” potential disaster ” waiting to happen with regards to fire safety due to so many new on-going renovation works not having full BOMBA endorsement to date for ”OC”. BOMBA inform that they are keeping an eye on this building and hope both the Architects and Engineers involved with the on-gong renovations works to submit their drawings for BOMBA endorsements before OC. The director mention that if there is a fire in Komplex Karamunsing now, chaos will happen as all pedestrians routes have been narrowed due to extension of additional shop lot spaces and even existing FIRE DOORs have been removed for these expansions and he is also not sure if there are any smoke extractors inside the central hall space. [ His off the cuff remarks was that he wont recommend bringing his children to this shopping Komplex]. Ar. Ho also express his concerns and concurred with the directors statements and hope all consultants involved to take note of BOMBA’s concerns.

New policies were also informed; [1], no more sprinklers requirement for 2 1/2- 3 storey housing and [2], doing away with requirement on limitations on maximum numbers of Terrace housing units [before: Max.16 units or 300 feet due to fire break requirement ] in one block. It is now up to Local Authorities to determine what is allowable with regards to the number of Max. units in block.

Questions and answers and many kind words of praise follows after the presentations from both Architects and Engineers. All presents were later invited by the director for a tour of BOMBA’s Forensic Laboratory where millions of Ringgit worth of equipments were stored and where resulting evidence of equipments failures or human carelessness were also on display. We were briefed by the director along the tour on every segment of displays on the various causes of fire.

We were also informed that Sabah BOMBA department has now engaged 2 full time chemist on hand and their duties include investigations and reporting on possible Arson’s for police further investigations esp. if fire had resulted in deaths and also for insurances claims requirement for damages to properties.

The director and his officers kindly invited all for a beautiful lunch at their dinning hall upstairs after this tour and a group photo was taken there after. We all left with a better knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of the Sabah Bomba department

On behalf of PAM Sabah Chapter, a big thank you to Tuan Khirudin and his officers for their kind invitation and hosting of this dialogue and hope other smaller district Bomba’s offices are as friendly and transparent as their Headquarter at Jalan Lintas.

Reported by:-
Ar. Ho Jia Lit

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Ar. Ho and Deputy Chairman, Ar. Wong attended a talk by the guest speaker, Dr. Myron Shekelle, conservation biologist from US held on 1 March 2010 at Le Meridien Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.The topic was ‘’Climate Change’’ and its impact on Asia. The chosen animal ‘’Slow Loris’’[Tarsier] a tiny nocturnal animal with big round eyes was the subject studied for over 13 years in Sulawesi [Indonesia] and how climate change will affect the decline of these animals. This talk was sponsored by the US Embassy KL.